What Brits get up to at bedtime...

19/03/2008

The British bed is in danger of becoming more of a communications hub than a place for sleep as eight out of ten people boot up a variety of hi-tech gadgets before bedtime, according to a survey by The Sleep Council for National Bed Month.

After cleaning their teeth with an electric toothbrush and setting the alarm on their Blackberry or mobile (22%), the average adult slips, exhausted, into bed between 10 and 11pm. 40% rarely or sometimes go to bed at the same time as their partner while one in four couples admit to always or regularly sleeping separately.

The bed itself is now more likely to be a bedstead than a divan, with mattresses featuring such luxuries or modern innovations as pocket springs memory foam, no-turn and anti-allergy options. And before people lie down, charging up electrical appliances has definitely taken over from prayers!

But is this really so surprising when you discover what people now do in bed?

One in three of us makes phone calls and sends or receives text or emails, and a further one in five keeps busy checking up on social networking sites such as Facebook, playing a computer game or listening to MP3 players.

The survey results provide a pretty accurate - if not slightly sad - snapshot of our lives today, with more than half of us regularly feel so tired at work that we would like to go home.

But some things about The Great British Bedtime don’t change: good old British ‘Jim Jams’ remain the most popular bedtime apparel with women outnumbering men in wearing them - although a small minority (1%) of men questioned claim to wear a nightie ...